Oakland — Brady Quinn is not only dressing for the first time in three games, he’s the Broncos’ No. 2 quarterback since the final three games of last season.

Tim Tebow is the starter although Broncos coach John Fox indicated this week that his second-year lefty would have to show improvement in the passing game, particularly on third down, for the game here today against the Oakland Raiders.

If Tebow gets the wind knocked out of him or falters, Quinn could see action in the second half. Kyle Orton is the No. 3 quarterback and will also be on the game-day roster.

The Broncos have room on their game-day roster for three quarterbacks because three of their best special teams players — Quinton Carter, Cassius Vaughn and Virgil Green — are down with injuries.

Update: Carter, a rookie safety, is active despite suffering a concussion last week against Detroit, but he is not expected to start. Rahim Moore is expected to start at safety alongside Brian Dawkins.

For some reason, I get a lot of e-mails, hear some talk show chatter, and get questions from friends that wonder if Broncos bosses John Elway and John Fox are purposely setting up Tim Tebow to fail.

It started with the trade of No. 1 receiver Brandon Lloyd, so the “conspiracy theory” does have a seed, I suppose. But like most conspiracy theories, they have spread to lunancy. Like the Broncos’ offensive game plan for instance. The complaints went from too much conservative play-calling in Tebow’s first start at Miami and not enough conservative passing in his second start against the Lions.

With Brady Quinn not activated for the game today against the Detroit Lions, the Broncos are taking some risk by only dressing two quarterbacks. For that matter, they’re only dressing two tailbacks.

So let’s say Tim Tebow has the wind knocked out of him. Kyle Orton would come in and play quarterback. And then let’s say Orton bangs his hand on a helmet while passing and he loses feeling for half a quarter.

What then? The Broncos would have no choice but to run their Wild Horse offense with starting tailback Knowshon Moreno taking the shotgun snap. And if Moreno twists an ankle, Lance Ball would become the emergency quarterback taking the shotgun snap from center.

And if Ball gets dinged, the Broncos will punt on first down and hope their defense scores. Just kidding. Sort of.

No. 2 receiver Jabbar Gaffney had been the Broncos’ emergency quarterback in 2009-10. Rod Smith was always the emergency No. 3 QB during his playing career that ended following the 2006 season.

Miami Gardens, Fla. — The Broncos will not give No. 3 quarterback Brady Quinn a game uniform today when they play the Miami Dolphins. It’s the first time Quinn has been inactive since he joined the team prior to last season, although he has yet to play in a regular-season game for the Broncos.

Instead, the Broncos will dress five receivers. With Demaryius Thomas and Eddie Royal returning from significant injuries, Broncos coach John Fox wants to make sure he has depth at that position. He can’t use Tim Tebow as a fallback plan at receiver, as he did in game 2 against Cincinnati. Tebow will play quarterback today.

Eric Decker, Matt Willis and returner Quan Cosby are the other receivers. Decker and Thomas will start.

With Quinn down, Kyle Orton will be Tebow’s backup quarterback today. Orton started the Broncos’ first five games.

Raiders beat writer Steve Corkran of the Bay Area News Group tweeted earlier today, as the trade between the Bengals and Raiders was being finalized, that Palmer would likely make his Oakland debut Nov. 6 against the Broncos.

Oakland plays Kansas City this weekend — likely with Kyle Boller at quarterback — and then will have the full bye week to get Palmer ready to play.

So tell me, Broncos fans, how do you feel about this news? Are the Raiders a better team now with Palmer than they were with Jason Campbell? Are you mad the Raiders didn’t make a push to get Kyle Orton instead? Are you happy the Raiders gave away one, maybe two, first-round draft picks?

The two-minute offense used to be where Kyle Orton and the Broncos were at their best.

Not so much Sunday against the Chargers.

After a negative-four-yard pass on first down, Orton was nearly picked off by San Diego safety Eric Weddle on second down, and then threw an incompletion on third down.

That drive summed up a disappointing half for Orton and the passing game on a day the Broncos quarterback desperately needed to be at his best. Orton finished the first half with only 34 yards passing, with six-of-13 completions, and a passer rating of 21.0.

Only one of Orton’s completions was to a wide receiver — and that was the 4-yard loss catch by Eric Decker. Tight end Daniel Fells and running back Knowshon Moreno each had two catches, and tight end Dante Rosaio had one.

Forget, for just one cotton-pickin’ second, whether the Broncos replace quarterback Kyle Orton after next week’s bye with Tim Tebow.

John Fox can continue to push off the issue as long as he sees fit. There’s nothing he can do, though, to keep all his top-flight receivers happy after the bye.

Currently, the Broncos starting receivers are Brandon Lloyd, who led the NFL in receiving yards last year, and Eric Decker, who has five touchdowns (one on a punt return) through four games.

Returning from injury after the bye week will be Eddie Royal, who was starting ahead of Decker before tearing his groin in week 2 against Cincinnati, and Demaryius Thomas, who the Broncos selected three spots ahead of Tebow in the first round of the 2010 draft and has yet to play this season because of an Achilles tear and broken pinky finger.

Cleveland Browns running back Peyton Hillis sits on the bench late in the team's 31-13 loss to the Tennessee Titans last weekend.

To play or not to play Tim Tebow in some ways has become a Fans vs. Fox contest.

Bronco fans are confident they are smarter than the coach because they recently prevailed in the case of Peyton Hillis. Bronco fans knew coach Josh McDaniels was wrong about Hillis. In 2008, Bronco fans saw how Hillis helped win games. He became popular to the point of achieving cult-like status.

Hillis, though, was a Mike Shanahan find. McDaniels wasn’t around in 2008 to appreciate what Hillis could do for a team. So even on third-and-6 inch plays in 2009, McDaniels would give the ball to Knowshon Moreno, who’s 40 to 50 pounds smaller than Hillis. And then McDaniels made the fatal mistake of blaming the offensive line when Moreno could never pick up six inches.

The fans were proven right, and McDaniels was proven wrong when Hillis went on to become a 1,000-yard, touchdown machine for the Cleveland Browns. Yes, Hillis still fumbles too much. Yes, he misses assignments. But despite his flaws, Hillis won games for the Broncos. And McDaniels lost too many.

NFL fans got to see the best sort of quarterback play Sunday in Aaron Rodgers, who had a record-setting day in the Packers’ 49-23 beatdown of the Broncos. 408 passing yards. Four passing touchdowns. Two rushing touchdowns.

And then, there were the other guys.

Six NFL quarterbacks threw at least one interception that was returned for a touchdown yesterday, including the Broncos’ Kyle Orton. The others were Dallas’ Tony Romo (who threw TWO!), Carolina’s Cam Newton, Cincinnati’s Andy Dalton, Cleveland’s Colt McCoy, Baltimore’s Joe Flacco and the Jets’ Mark Sanchez. Sanchez’ pick six, in the fourth quarter, also lost two fumbles that were returned for Baltimore touchdowns.

What a shameful afternoon and evening for the art of quarterbacking.

While we’re on the subject of interceptions, Orton’s three on Sunday gives him six on the season. That is tied for the most in the NFL right now. His company? None other than San Diego’s Philip Rivers, who will be bringing his Chargers to Denver on Sunday.

GREEN BAY — Playing Tim Tebow is about trying to spark the Broncos’ disappointing run game.

Whether he’s used as a quarterback in the “Wild Horse” or running back, Tebow’s role today will not take quarterback Kyle Orton off the field.

Despite a greater commitment to the run this season, the Broncos rank 28th in the NFL with just 76.0 rushing yards per game. They are averaging just 3.2 yards per carry. The Green Bay defense, meanwhile, ranks No. 1 against the run, allowing just 55.0 rushing per game.

Despite this mismatch, the Broncos have to run, anyway, if they are to minimimize the possessions of Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who is arguably the league’s best. Thus, the “Tebow Package.”

Let’s all say thanks to the NFL scheduling Gods for giving us Broncos-Bengals this week, if only so I can repost this video:

I was packing up my things, getting ready to head to the locker room at Paul Brown Stadium after Cincinnati had taken a 7-6 lead late in the 2009 season opener. I sure am glad I was still in the press box when that play happened — it is, without question, the craziest play I have ever seen live. Gus Johnson’s play call on CBS only enhances the memory.

We asked Broncos quarterback Kyle Orton about that play this week, and he remembers it just as fondly.

“It was a crazy game and how it came down. They’ve got a good defense on that side of the ball, and they played us tough the whole way and really had us down. To throw it over there to B-Marsh and to see Stokley, who is a good friend of mine and one of the luckiest individuals I’ve ever met, to see him and running into the end zone, it was a special day,” Orton said.

That win was the first of the Josh McDaniels Era, and kicked off that 6-0 start. Perhaps, it was the high point, too.

By now you’ve surely heard about the plan of several Broncos fans to buy a couple of billboards, urging John Fox to bench quarterback Kyle Orton.

Fox, asked about the billboard business after practice Thursday said he appreciates the passion shown by fans like Jesse Oaks, who is spearheading the billboard project with some of his buddies.

But the question is, will it work?

“I’ve seen a lot of billboards, and I can’t think of one that really influenced me,” Fox said, laughing.

Broncos backup quarterback Tim Tebow, the guy whom the fans behind the billboards would like to see start, said he appreciated the fan support — the same answer he gives whenever he is asked about things like jersey sales and Tebow chants. Local radio host Darren McKee of 104.3 The Fan told Tebow during the group interview session that a listener yesterday suggested that Oaks and Co. give the $10,000 to charity instead of buying the billboard. What charity? The Tim Tebow Foundation, of course.

Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow on the sideline during Denver's 23-20 loss to the Raiders on Monday.

Jesse Oaks and seven of his buddies have been saving their money for almost a year for a guys trip to the Super Bowl in Indianapolis.

But after the Broncos lost their season opener on Monday, the group concocted a new plan for how to spend those dollars: Buy two billboards on which to implore the Broncos bosses to make a change at quarterback.

“We believe in Coach Fox, we’re just tired of Kyle Orton,” Oaks said. “We were sitting around after Fox said he didn’t hear the chants for Tebow, and we figured if he’s deaf, we hope he’s not blind.”

On the injury report
“[DE] Elvis Dumervil—shoulder; [CB] Champ Bailey—hamstring strain; [RB] Knowshon Moreno—hamstring strain; [WR] Brandon Lloyd—groin strain. They all left the game at some point.”

On DE Elvis Dumervil
“He tweaked his shoulder. He had a little harder of a time on run-downs than he did on pass-downs. We tried to cut some of those collisions down.”

On the trouble with the run game
“I think they stacked the run, but we passed the ball pretty well. Unfortunately, not well enough.”

On QB Kyle Orton
“I think all-in-all it was probably like all of us, not quite good enough.”

On the team’s stamina
“I think that’s a good question, and it’s probably something we need to improve on a little bit. I think the whole league needs to improve on it. There’s reasons for it. We had a couple of guys go down, so we were playing a lot of people there at the end. So, that’s something we’ll look at and definitely work on this week.”

The Denver Post on Thursday will release a 16-page Broncos and NFL preview, breaking down team needs and John Elway’s vision for where the team will head. Find it in a special print section and online at denverpost.com/broncos.

An overnight sensation eight years in the making. After not starting more than five games in any season since 2006, Lloyd led the NFL in receiving yards in 2010 and earned his first Pro Bowl berth. He is the Broncos’ unquestioned No. 1 option on the outside.

Did you know? Lloyd was a three-time Missouri state high jump champion in high school.

LT Ryan Clady

After his 2009 Pro Bowl season, tried to play his way through his rehab from knee surgery in 2010. NFL personnel executives said it showed in his play, but he showed quickness and nimble feet this preseason. If the Broncos succeed up front, he will be a big reason.

Did you know? Clady is one of only four players in the league from the 2008 draft to have started the first 48 games of his NFL career.

See the rest of the offense, starters and reserves, after the jump.Read more…

Mike Klis has been with The Denver Post since 1998, after working 13 years with the Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph. Major League Baseball was Klis' initial passion. He started covering the Colorado Rockies after Coors Field was approved for construction in August 1990.

Nicki Jhabvala is the Sports Digital News Editor for The Denver Post. Before arriving in Denver, she spent five years at Sports Illustrated working primarily as its online NBA editor, and she was most recently the overnight home page editor at the New York Times. She has reported regularly on the Broncos since joining the staff.

A published author and award-winning journalist, Benjamin Hochman is a sports columnist for The Denver Post. He previously worked on the staff of the New Orleans Times-Picayune, winners of two Pulitzer Prizes for their Hurricane Katrina coverage.